90 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Most all kinds have been injured by the rot to some extent, 

 but still with all these drawbacks it will take more than one 

 unfavorable season to change my opinion about the entire 

 practicability of grape-growing here. 



But, gentlemen, the subject of small fruits is the one that we 

 should more particularly urge upon the cultivators of our State. 

 Not that the former are not important, but that they have 

 already a good start, and are more prominent before the 

 people. 



I hold that every person who cultivates a garden, should 

 raise the small fruits to some extent for family use, and coming 

 as they do in the hot season, at the time when such food adds, 

 particularly by its cooling nature, to the healthy action of the 

 stomach, they promote health and are also agreeable to the 

 palate, and save money by keeping away the doctor. 



The strawberry is one of the varieties of small fruits, of which 

 every one who has a garden should have a bed sufficiently large 

 to supply an abundance for the family, and when near the 

 market is a profitable crop to raise to sell. The same may be 

 said of the raspberry. Both require good soil and high cultiva- 

 tion to succeed perfectly, and when grown for market, no larger 

 extent of surface should be planted than can be easily handled, 

 both in the cultivation, picking and marketing. 



Mr. J. F. G. Hyde, President of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society. The remarks of the chairman suggest to us 

 many things in regard to fruit culture. He has glanced over 

 the whole field, and has touched upon one subject in which I 

 feel a great deal of interest ; that is, the failure of the apple. 

 We all remember when apples were as abundant as any crop 

 produced on our farms. Then apples sold for $1 or $1.25 a 

 barrel, and cider was produced for $2 and perhaps less a barrel ; 

 while now we are paying $6 a barrel for Northern Spys, and 

 cider is bringing $12 or $14 a barrel. The question naturally 

 arises, " Why this state of things ? " A writer in the " New 

 York Tribune " says that New England can no longer produce 

 apples ; her soil is worn out, and therefore we must look to the 

 West and the Middle States for our supplies of that fruit. 

 This seems to me to be nonsense. If our lands have been 

 exhausted of those elements which are necessary to the growth 

 of the apple tree and the production of its fruit, is it not possible 



